This hacker meticulously converts a vintage mechanical toy into a picture perfect arcade replica! Via Circuitbeard [h/t Motherboard]:
Well, I’ve only gone and done it again, and this times it’s with the Tomy Turnin’ Turbo Dashboard, an old 80s desktop motorized driving game which I’ve converted into a suitably retro Outrun arcade.
Some key features are an integrated 3.5” TFT screen, fully usable steering wheel and gear shifter (dashboard turbo light comes on when in high gear), working ignition key for power, true MPH speed and rev counter displays, and a fuel gauge to represent the stage time remaining.
The project itself was quite a big one for me, filled with several moments of frustration, from burnt out potentiometers, to soldering LEDs backwards, multiple TFT screen purchases and more than one change in direction as approaches to problems were found to be inadequate.
What’s documented in this post then are the final approaches I took (or at least the best I can recall as some times I’m sure I was just trying anything :)).
Check out the CIRCUITBEARD post to see this amazing transformation step by step!
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